Jeff Gardiner did a great interview with IGN about our first downloadable content – Operation Anchorage. The end of the interview is the part I am most excited about. Our third DLC, Broken Steel, will raise the level cap and let you continue to play the game after the main quest is done. Here’s a snippet from the interview:

IGN: The liberation of Alaska was hinted at a lot during Fallout 3. What can we expect out of that simulated battle?

Jeff Gardiner: In Operation: Anchorage the player will find themselves able to re-live the famous liberation of Anchorage from Fallout lore — inside a simulation similar to one found along the main quest of Fallout 3. Once the player finds their way into the simulation, they’ll be stripped of their resources and have to survive within the rules set up by the simulation’s creators.

The Chinese red army is everywhere, and the player will first have to secure the surrounding mountain side and then fight their way into the Chinese base. The player will have to use a lot of their standard combat skills, along with several new tools that will only be available in the downloadable content. These include interactive Strike Teams under the player’s command and unique armor, weapons, and other exotic gadgets.

In other news on IGN, they’ve got Fallout 3 listed as one of the best games of the year in their 2008 Year in Review features for PlayStation 3 and PC. Also, be sure to check out their video on how to obtain the Experimental MIRV. Check out the video after the jump.

Yesterday GamaSutra posted a story (originally from Game Developer magazine) entitled Game Developer’s Top Deck 2008. This “deck” highlights members of the game development community for their work in 2008. Making the list as the 10 of Diamonds is none other than Fallout 3 Lead Designer Emil Pagliarulo.

So what makes Emil a diamond? According the feature, diamonds are reserved for Progressives that “implement brand new ideas in game development, perhaps branching in unexpected yet compelling directions. Alternatively, you can simply make what already works, work a whole lot better.”

Today we released the G.E.C.K. (that’s Garden of Eden Creation Kit) for Fallout 3. As the official editor of Fallout 3, the G.E.C.K. will allow you to create your very own content for the PC version of Fallout 3.

To help you get started, members of the team have put together a wiki for the G.E.CK. Whether you’re new to modding or not, we highly recommend you check out our tutorials, entitled “My First Vault Tutorial Series.”

To go along with the tutorials, we’ve put some helpful videos together to help walk you through the process. Above is the first video on Layout — you’ll find the other eight after the break. Special thanks go out to Rashad Redic, Joel Burgess, Jeff Browne, Jesse Tucker, Phil Nelson and Daryl Brigner for putting these together.

Last week we kicked off the Community Scrapbook and asked that you send along your favorite “funny characters” you’ve created in Fallout 3.

While the above image (from Brian Nielson) could be classified more as being “terrifying” than “funny” — I did get a kick out of his character’s Freddy Krueger-esque look — I must say it’s a pretty clever use of the Deathclaw Gauntlet and Ghoul mask.

We got plenty of other entries, but I realized that creating funny characters in a post apocalyptic environment isn’t always what you guys have in mind. This time around, we’ll make it a little bit easier. Send us your favorite Scenic Landscape images, and we’ll share sometime soon on the blog. Remember, they can be from any of our games.

After the break, you can check out a few other humorous characters that were sent along…

Tonight on X-Play, Morgan and Adam will be announcing their Best of 2008 winners. Fallout 3 is nominated in a few categories, including Best RPG, Best Art Direction, and Game of the Year. To find out who the winners are, tune in at 8 p.m. eastern time.

“The ongoing background story is absorbing, the action is frequently frenetic without being overwhelming, and the graphics are spot on for making you feel like you are actually wandering a Post-Apocalypse world. Fallout 3 has got us completely hooked and we are certain most of you as well. There was only one spot suitable for Fallout 3 and that is #1.”

In other news, the editors at Game Daily have put together a list of the Top 25 Addictive Games of All Time. Both Oblivion (#17)and Fallout 3 (#12) made their list

Splash Damage sent out a press release this week announcing Richard “Rahdo” Ham as their new Creative Director. With 15 years in the gaming industry under his belt, Ham will lead the design team for the yet-to-be-announced title that we’re working on with the studio. Prior to his new gig, Richard worked as the creative lead for Syphon Filter, and most recently as the Lead Designer for Fable 2.

GamesRadar has a new feature on their site comparing the real world sites of Washington, DC to screenshots taken within the game. If you can look past all the destruction, I’d say they look pretty similar. There’s no ducks in Fallout 3, of course.

It’s been a while since we posted something about Tamriel Rebuilt — an extensive Elder Scrolls mod project that has community members rebuilding the whole continent of Tamriel one province at a time.

The TR team recently celebrated the the beta release of Map 2: The Antediluvian Secrets. According to their site, Map 2 is a continuation of the Telvannis region. The map is massive; containing over 580 exterior cells and more than 420 interior cells.

We tip our cap to the Tamriel Rebuilt team for their continued work on this project. For details on Map 2 and more, be sure to check out their blog.

Thought I’d share this video from Fallout fan Jacob Talkington. Entitled “Burning Down – Buffout Remix” the video showcases some pretty spectacular views from the Wasteland. According to Jacob, he did all the video capture, editing and music for the video…nice work.

Maybe it’s that I spend too much time playing games, or the fact that I’m not a teenage girl — I’d never heard of the whole Twilight phenomenon until after the movie came out. I’m sure there are guys here that have read the books, but looking at the list below — it doesn’t appear anyone was lured in by the hype surrounding the film.

Here are the books, websites, and magazine WE ARE reading. Feel free to let us know what you’re reading, and if you’ve read Twilight, I’m curious to hear what you thought of it.